Protege breaks 100k

My 2001 Mazda Protege hit 100,000 miles last night. I've been anticipating this for weeks. I bought the car in 2004 with just over 40,000 miles.

The last time I drove a car past 100,000 miles it was my dad's old Mazda 626 which was passed on to me when I was 18. That car I hit 100,000 miles in front of Molly Pitcher's Well in Manalapan, NJ.

Last night, I was at the corner of Jett Road and Tanglewood Trail in Atlanta when I hit the goal. My girlfriend and I visited Dunkin' Donuts 8 miles prior and then drove as the odometer ticked away. Below are the pictures of the odometer and the location. (photos by Amy)

There for the news story

Police Investigate Reports of Gunfire at Screen on the Green

Last night a bunch of friends and I went to see the Screen on the Green movie festival at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. They were showing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and we got there just after the movie started. We couldn't hear much because the place was packed and people were yelling and walking around the entire time. Still, it was the first time I was seeing the film so I did my best to assume the storyline.

I went to the porto potties with my friend at one point, and on our way back, we saw a huge crowd running toward our direction screaming. The first thing both of us thought was that someone had gotten shot. We went back to our seats though and sat down. We could see over the whole crowd and saw people getting up to leave. Soon after, the screen flickered as the organizers feigned technical difficulties. They announced the event was over because the projector was having issues. The article above describes how it was because of the perceived unsafe situation at hand.

We hung out for a bit after, not knowing it was unsafe, before heading to leave. On our way out we passed through numerous large groups of teens. At one point our group of friends were approached by a young man who asked if any of us had an iPhone. He jammed his hand into my pocket, and finding nothing, went to my next friend's pocket, where he found his iPhone. Yelling ensued, as the young man grasped onto my friend. My other friends and I tried to break everything up, while the rest of the crowd around us circled around yelling. Finally, we got our friend free and in the resulting standoff one of my other friends got hit. The young man bolted when the police poured in, and we saw the young man fall flat on his face; he had been tasered by a police officer.

This was my first time experiencing anything like this in Atlanta or anywhere. I felt bad since one of my friends who I went to undergrad with was visiting from North Carolina, and this was to be his one memory of Atlanta. I haven't had any issues like this before. I hope Screen on the Green continues, just under safer conditions.

Accidental Optical Illusion

My office mate accidentally made an optical illusion with some of the data output for his thesis. I always wished I could create, on purpose, my own optical illusion. Lucky guy stumbled right onto it! Check it out! It looks like the x-axis is sloping down and to the right, but it most certainly is flat.

Cold Egg

Back last summer, my carton of eggs was left too close to the point where the cold air enters the refrigerator. It froze my eggs. I took the shell off anyway, and this was the result.

New Bed

I moved in to my new house last August. I needed a new full size bed; I already had the sheets from my undergrad days. I searched craigslist and found a guy selling a full size bed and I purchased it on my second day here in my new city. Little by little my sheets seemed to shrink. I couldn't understand why they seemed just out of reach. Every time I made my bed I had to rip them a little more to make them fit. I'd been debating buying new sheets.

I measured my bed last week. It turns out it was a queen size the whole time.

Staying home sick

I always found it to be a very weird feeling when I had to stay home from school sick. All day I'd spend at home, but it was surreal since I knew I was supposed to be somewhere else. I'd look at my clock, and say to myself, "You'd be in [insert class] right now." I hated the feeling, that life was happening where you should be, and yet you weren't there. I guess I just hated skipping school.